Ennis bounces to the Banner beat

While Clare were sharp, Derek McGrath’s team were blunt. And surprisingly and disappointedly, undisciplined.

To appreciate just how big and novel and outrageously long-awaited this day this was for Cusack Park, the last time Clare played someone other than Kerry in the Munster senior hurling championship here in Ennis, Tony Kelly, the scorer of six splendid points from play yesterday, wasn’t even born.

Instead when a Len Gaynor-coached team upset Limerick this weekend 25 years ago, Kelly was still in his mother’s womb. In Clare’s prior championship outing, Anthony Daly had been told to stick to his traditional music by his Waterford marker and his Clarecastle clubmate Sparrow O’Loughlin had told him he was finished with Clare.